EMILY’s List names 2020 House and Senate targets

EMILY’s List is looking to expand the Democratic House majority and flip the Senate next year, naming 43 House Republicans and six GOP senators on its initial list of 2020 targets, shared first with Roll Call.

“EMILY’s List is actively recruiting and working with potential candidates in these flippable districts,” Stephanie Schriock, president of the pro-abortion rights group, said in a statement. “We look forward to sending even more pro-choice Democratic women to Congress next year to fight for health care, economic justice, and to end corruption.”

The group listed 12 House Republicans whom the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not include on its initial target list, taking aim at a few GOP lawmakers in traditionally Republican districts.

Eleven of them are in races Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates Solid Republican. They include Mario Diaz-Balart and Michael Waltz of Florida; Greg Gianforte of Montana; David Joyce and Michael R. Turner of Ohio; Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington; Denver Riggleman of Virginia; Elise Stefanik of New York; Tim Walberg of Michigan; Steve Watkins of Kansas; and Don Young of Alaska.

One targeted lawmaker not on the DCCC list, Pete Stauber of Minnesota, is in a Likely Republican race.

Separately, the DCCC is also targeting Georgia’s open 7th District, where Republican incumbent Rob Woodall is retiring, and North Carolina’s 9th, which is currently vacant as it awaits a special election later this year. Neither seat is among EMILY’s List initial targets.

The group is also targeting six GOP senators who are up for re-election, including both GOP senators running in states that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016: Susan Collins of Maine and Cory Gardner of Colorado.

Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, David Perdue of Georgia, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are the other four targets.

EMILY’s List raised a record $110 million in the 2018 cycle amid a surge of Democratic women running for office. A memo by the group noted that it spent $24.4 million on House races and $9.3 million on Senate races last cycle, combining donations directly to candidates and other groups as well as independent expenditures.

The group is expected to be engaged at the congressional level in 2020 as well as in the presidential race, where a record number of female Democrats are seeking the nomination. EMILY’s List also supports candidates at the state and local level.